A lot has happened in a few months!

I know that the majority of my sales were because of well-placed ads on social media during the holidays but I still can't help but feel really good! I always thought that if I was making money doing something I loved it would be as a chef, which is what I'm trained to do. Ever since the pandemic world took over, I have been stuck mostly at home due to my Epilepsy and compromised immune system. You have one seizure on a day off at home during a pandemic and everyone freaks out...

Big TLDR incoming; https://bit.ly/3gZ5kQx

All summer I was lost, nothing to do and not making a dime to my name. I had to resort to government help a few times just to keep my fiance and I afloat. Then a series of awfully timed events unfolded that nearly made us and our kitties homeless, we were doing so badly. Less than 3 weeks before Christmas, the only good thing we had going was my fiance's decent job and they let him go. He was late too much because our truck sucked and broke down all the time so he was late every now and then. A truck he bought from that place of work, mind you.

The last time they said enough and let him go. Ironically, he couldn't even get out of their parking lot after just having been fired and that was our combined rock bottom. He was just fired and his now ex co-workers were watching him fail to start his truck and it was all probably so very embarrassing. He called me, a broken man, from their parking lot and told me how sorry he was that he failed me and he felt horrible that being fired meant he wasn't getting his Christmas bonus that he spent all year earning. I felt terrible! He didn't fail me or anyone! He was still my knight in shining armour and I hadn't lost a shred of faith in him. I ended up finding a friend who helped him get out of there and get the truck home.

So, we have zero jobs at this point and it's nearly Christmas. I did the only thing I could think of, sold sold sold sold sold. I pushed and pushed, paid for social media ads and did a ton of my own advertising. I asked a friend who is a local market vendor if she could sell my pins at her booth, I poked and prodded and annoyed and sold sold sold. I had some incredible and amazing souls on here offer to help us out and donate to help us pay rent. If we hadn't received that help I wouldn't have been able to accomplish anything because I wouldn't have had a roof over my head or electricity. In the end, we managed to get his daughter the few gifts she wanted and a couple of bonus things I picked out or made for her with my 3D printer.

We somehow managed to turn a shitty situation into a good thing. I love selling 3D prints now, It's a lot of fun and I enjoy being creative in new ways. I do miss making fancy food every day but this is a lot of fun too.
My fiance has a new job, not a forever job but it's safe and reliable. We are finally stable and no longer in danger of losing our home in January in Canada in the middle of winter with 3 cats. That would have SUCKED.

TLDR; Fiance and I almost lost everything, I got good at a thing and turned that into a business. Not losing everything anymore because my fiance and I are very lucky to have each other and we are especially lucky for this amazing community.

Thanks for reading! If you made it this far you might want the link to my shop! It's very small, mostly reliant on my octopus and dragon-shaped hairpins. The octopus ones are my favourite, when you're not wearing it you have 2 plastic swords to play with so it's a win-win! https://bit.ly/3gZ5kQx

Happy scrolling everybody!